1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a surface-mount inductor including a coil formed by winding a wire and a body for accommodating and mounting the coil, and a method for manufacturing the same.
2. Related Applications
Among conventional surface-mount inductors, there is an inductor, as shown in FIG. 8, having a coil 41 which is configured by winding a wire of rectangular section in such a manner that its wide surface directs to the vertical direction to the winding axis of the coil, and the lead ends 41d are connected to the connecting portion 41d of the coil 41 to form a molded body 42, thus the metal frame 45 exposed from the molded body 42 is folded along the molded body 42 to make external terminals (JP2011-243703).
This type of inductor has an undesirable increase both in the number of parts and in manufacturing costs. Also, such a conventional surface-mount inductor is riddled with the risk of defects because, since coil ends have to be welded to metal pieces when connecting the coil to the metal frame, the contacting portions of coil ends and metal pieces to be connected thereto are exposed to thermal and mechanical stresses. In addition, since in a conventional surface-mount inductor the winding axis of a coil is set orthogonally to the circuit wiring board, its electric characteristics are directional and require some indication showing the polarity of the terminals.